Was there, for example, ever a villain as villainous as Felonius Gru in Despicable Me?

Well, yes, actually — someone worse pops up in Despicable Me 2, a baddie so nefarious that Gru himself is recruited to help stop the guy’s reign of terror. See if you’ll be able to predict who has the toxic serum that turns even the sweetest puppy or kitten into a monster!

Dr. Nefario? El Macho? So many bad guys, so little time!

Consider some of these spectacular villains in animated history:

1) Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty, 1959)

Few characters make your blood run cold the way Maleficent does; she’s so creepy and manipulative "¦ and somehow weirdly admirable. In Sleeping Beauty, it’s Maleficent who moves things along, getting the princess to prick her finger (on that phallic spindle) and so fall into eternal slumber. Maleficent is so wicked she’ll soon get her own movie, and be played by Angelina Jolie. That’s pretty wicked, come to think about it.

2) Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmations, 1961)

Who makes a coat out of puppy skins? Who takes puppies away from their mother? Fie! Nobody was as heinous a villain as Cruella. And nobody else has that witchy, black and white hair. Bad, bad, bad.

3) Ursula (The Little Mermaid, 1989)

Pat Carroll was the voice of the terrible seahag who makes a deal with the little mermaid — she can have legs and become human to meet her prince, but she’ll lose her beautiful singing voice. Ursula could transform herself into human form, too, and did her best to ruin the prince’s life as well. A most machiavellian octopus!

4) Hexxus (Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, 1992)

Hexxus was a very frightening polluting force, a dark power that ruined the environment and poisoned the inhabitants of the rainforest. An ancient spirit of destruction, Hexxus gains strength by feeding on pollution. Timely and terrible, as villains go. And with Tim Curry’s voice, too.

5) Judge Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996)

Oh, so pious, is the racist, gypsy-hating Frollo. He lusts after Esmeralda; he sees himself as above the law. And why not? He has a posse of ‘soldiers’ to do his dirty work for him. The darkest heart can be found within an ostensibly law-abiding citizen. It’s as if he’s running for mayor. Bwa-ha-ha! Twirl your moustache accordingly. If you have one.

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